On the morning of the eighteenth day I was taken to the punishment room. I was stripped naked and whipped with forty lashes. A devilish mind invented this implement of torture. A strap about fourteen inches long and about fifteen inches at its widest part was affixed to a wooden handle, to give, as I once heard an officer say, more swing to it. To give it pliability it is kept in an oil solution; this is to keep the leather soft and prevent its breaking. I had a dumb notion in my head that my punishment was about over with, but I was sadly mistaken. That noon I was ordered “on line” for thirty days. This “on line” punishment must have been devised by one inordinately brutal. There were certain hours at the school which were regarded as recreation time. If one were “on line,” he walked in a circle about thirty feet in circumference during all that period of play. He was supposed to let his hands fall at his side, face square to the front, and in absolute silence. Of course this galled bitterly. The boy being punished by this method was in full view of the others and they of him; he saw them at their games, but could take no part in their pleasures. For myself I preferred the lockup to this. In my later days at the school, when experience had toughened and much punishment hardened me, I refused to walk, and took the licking instead. There came a day when they even stopped licking me. That experience, following the escape, pulled me down a little lower. I began to hate the society which maintained such an institution. I scoffed at the name “reform” and resolved to escape again. I soon did so, but the law reached out for me and brought me back. I tried again and again, but each time I was returned. The fourth time I managed to stay away for three long months. I had a unique experience after being returned this fourth time. All the other times on my return to the institution after escaping, I was subjected to the usual punishment. On my return this time, however, I was brought immediately before the head of the institution. He spoke to me kindly of the uselessness of such escapes, and asked me to promise him that I would not attempt to escape again. Of course I promised him; I would have promised anything that he asked; but the promise was worth nothing. My nature had commenced to acquire the quality of hypocrisy and I had been punished enough to lead me to promise him anything.